Sunday, February 8, 2009

Results, February 3-8

I heard that Aki Shizuku, who seems to have debuted at the Vader Time show on 2/1 and beat Mikado before losing on 2/3, was a good amateur wrestler. I wonder if we'll see more of her in MAKEHEN or elsewhere? Oh, and nobody in Japan seems to be able to stop Hailey Hatred. There were some developments and a couple of big surprises at the OZ Academy show at Shinjuku FACE on 2/5. Mayumi Ozaki, the holder of both the singles and tag titles in OZ, arrogantly decided to defend both titles at the same show. The opener was a defense of the singles title against Sonoko Kato. The match devolved into the usual invasion by the Ozaki Army and they beat up the hapless referee. It looked like Kato should win the title via DQ, but the match was ruled a no-contest. Sonoko demanded an immediate restart without seconds present, got it, but then lost to the Ozakick, making Mayumi's first defense a success.

The next match was Manami Toyota vs Hiren. Normally I wouldn't even mention it here, as the only thing I thought was in question beforehand was which finisher Toyota would use. Both are part of Ozaki's faction and Manami arrogantly decided this match would be a good opportunity to "teach" Hiren how to do dropkicks and missile kicks properly, before winning at will once she got bored. Hiren didn't get the message and scored a shock pinfall after a missile kick. I have a feeling Toyota (who has been quite the cranky old vet recently) will not be amused by getting pinned by a junior. THAT'S RIGHT-HIREN PINNED MANA-FUCKIN-MI TOYOTA!!!

The main event had Ozaki & KAORU defending the tag titles against Jungle Jack 21 (Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto). I expected a title change, but I didn't expect Hiroyo to do the honors. But she did, hitting a Liger Bomb on KAORU and the girl with only 2.5 years in the business is now wearing 3 belts (JWP Junior, P.O.P., and OZ Tag).

There will be immediate title defenses at Korakuen Hall on 2/22. We will have Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai and Kong/Matsumoto vs Chikayo Nagashima/Sonoko Kato (as Kato probably feels she got screwed out of the singles belt and promised Hiroyo her tag title reign will be short). I'm surprised they are doing Ozaki/Kansai already, but they'll probably have some sort of WCW/TNA finish and have a stipulation match later this year.Also at the 2/22 show is the debut of "Super Heel" Toshie Uematsu. I wonder if Toshie will be as good at being immobile and no-selling as Devil ;)

A decent crowd and some interesting results from the Cinema Club on 2/8, which had a JWP/NEO double shot. JWP had the matinee. Hiroyo Matsumoto defended the junior titles over Pinkie; I don't think this is much of a surprise. I expect her to get in a few more defenses before dropping the title outside of JWP, as she's already getting a good push outside of the junior ranks. I could see Pinkie eventually winning this title late this year or early next year as she progresses; remember, she's still very young, as she just turned 17.

The interesting twist was that Yumiko's new crony for the Hotta Gundam is Kyoko Kimura. Kimura debuted with JWP back in 2003 but was pretty lousy. She left JWP in late 2004 or early 2005 and supposedly had been told by Bolshoi that pro-wrestling just wasn't for her. Kimura then worked with Mariko Yoshida, improved a lot, and has had a good career as a free-lancer the past few years. I believe this is the first time she's worked JWP since leaving 4-ish years ago. Kimura makes perfect sense for the anti-JWP faction, as she works heel anyway and has a kayfabe (and maybe real life) reason to hate Command Bolshoi & JWP. As far as the finish, the best I could figure out was that feet and the rope were involved. I think Kimura scored a dirty pin over Bolshoi by putting her feet on the ropes, but it could have been Bolshoi getting her foot on the rope to break the count, but went unnoticed.

JWP's main event saw Tojuki Leon/Arisa Nakajima win the tag title shot. I expected this, as it would have been dumb to have Hotta/Keito vs Abe/KAZUKI. Arisa gets the big win, pinning Sachie Abe. Although they are foes in storyline, Abe was the one who brought Nakajima with her to JWP after AtoZ closed down.

Later on was the NEO show. The main story was the conclusion of the NEO STAGE tournament. Hiroyo Matsumoto continued her onslaught, as she scored the pin on Etsuko Mita in the first semi, then Yuki Miyazaki beats Kyoko Inoue in 18 SECONDS (I doublechecked). I'm suspecting something might be wrong with Inoue, making the short match a necessity. The "Sexy Tank" got revenge for last year's loss in the finals of this same tournament, as she took out Hiroyo with a Lariat. Matsumoto was working her 3rd long singles match of the day, while Miyazaki had only the very short match. Miyazaki gets to challenge Nanae Takahashi for the NEO/NWA Pacific titles at Korakuen Hall on 3/8.

Also, Ayumi Kurihara scored a pin (is this her first since coming back?) over Tomoka Nakagawa in a 6 woman tag against Revolucion Amandola and Passion Red wins again in another 6 woman tag (Natsuki using the Taiyo*Bomb on Ray). Passion Red and Revolucion Amandola were arguing with each other and their 6 woman match in Osaka on 2/11 has a stipulation. If Nanae & her girls lose, they have to give up the color red and rename their group. If RA loses, they have to get rid of the icky red hair. Eventually, there will be the NEO Tag Team title match between Kimura/Emoto and Natsuki/Kana on 2/22.